Self Righteous Cyclist

After months of early morning structured training, weekends with double hard days, bike prep, nutrition prep and targeted tapering, I was ready for my version of a grand final, the Tour of Bright.  The Tour of Bright is the biggest multi-stage bike race in Australia, with over 400 riders contesting, 10 categories, across three stages over two days.  Throw in the criterium on the night before and you have yourself an unofficial four stage event.  This is as big as it gets for club cyclists in Australia.   By 10:30am on Friday morning, the car was packed. My wife, Paula and I were ready to hit the road.  Across the road, we observe our neighbours, Michael and Jude rescuing ducklings from the storm water drain in front of their house.  We do the neighbourly thing and offer to help.  We corralled the rescued ducklings toward the mother duck and her brood of ducklings in the hope they can be reunited and make their way safely back to Merri Creek....

Part two of the Brunswick CC Dirty Warrny recap is by Anthony Somers, who is a veteran of a couple of Melbourne to Warrnambools in recent times, and knows what it takes to have a long day in the saddle.   Rolled up for my first attempt at the Dirty Warrny, a 251 km ride (but not a race, yeah right) from the edge of Geelong to the centre of Warrnambool. Over 200 kilometres of the course is on gravel and has well over 3,000 m of climbing, so I knew I was in for a long day. I was riding with longtime friend, Craig Fry, we met in 1988 as Monash first year students, he the worldly art student, me the immature engineer. Craig is a diesel, he can go all day. My characteristics are built on years of Northern Combine road racing and crits, so more used to surging, but not the distance. Preparation is everything. Luckily, Craig had insisted we ride the full course a month before and while I cursed him at the time, now had some confidence that I would be able to finish. The only concern was t...

Brunswick Cycling Club was well represented at this year's Dirty Warrny by riders in the elites and age groupers across the full 250km and 140km event. Tara Neyland was the first woman across the line in the 245km. Angus Moller, first in the 16-39 age group. Stewart Weir and Anthony Somers in the 50-59 men's category. Also a shout out to Evan Armstrong, Kenneth Attard, Leigh McCrabb, James Hunt, Trent Goatley and Sarah Gigante (2nd elite female) in the 140km. Oskar Moore in a well earned 5th place has been kind enough to write up a recap to give us an arm chair ride over the Otways and down to Warrnambool. Stay tuned for more DW recaps. This year's Dirty Warrny was a day I'd been looking forward to for a long time; a year in fact! Having rolled along - rather unfit - in 2023, in a time of 9 hours, I was keen to see what I could do after a year of consistent, hard training and racing. I drove down to the race start on the Friday night, and set up my tent a hundred me...

Angelo & Vince A field of 42 from 11 clubs and a good number of helpers turned out at the Glenaroua CFA Station for the Cup day running of Angelo's Race , otherwise known as the Angelo De Francesco Memorial Handicap, held in memory of one of the club's esteemed former members.  The De Francesco family was well represented on the day, with his daughter Sandra Prosenica riding off 30min, his grand daughter and great grandson in attendance.  Not to forget Angelo's influence goes as far as his grand daughter Daniella De Francesco currently riding in the women's pro peloton for Arkea - B&B Hotels.   2024 had an air of 2023 about it, with the same course and similar weather conditions.  26 of the 42 riders competed on the same course the previous year, with a core group of last year's scratch riders, including Jesse Cropley, who was the fastest rider in 2023.  Hopefully this information would help our beloved handicapper Bruce, but just like that warning ...

Tough courses bring out the hard and well trained men and women of the North.  It was unfortunate that there was a scheduling conflict with Gravelista at Seymour and that our Seymour-Broadford regulars weren't able to join us.  Also missing was Kathryn Kennedy, current women's champion, who is currently nursing an injury and wasn't able to contend the club champs.  We wish her a speedy recovery and hope to see her back racing soon. First of all, let's take a look at what this is all about, because there are three races within one event: The Secret Handicap, Age Group Championship and Club Championship for fastest man and woman. All riders start at the same time, without knowing what their handicap is, which is what makes this such an interesting ride. It's mano a mano.  The male Club Champion gets to wear the coveted number 1 for the next year, currently worn by Aaron Christiansen.   The conditions  Light NW winds, overcast skies and 17 degrees on...

Mitch Docker; could there be a more honest, loveable and community minded person in Australian cycling at the moment?  I for one don't think so.  Between his insightful commentary on SBS, his Life in the Peloton podcast which gives an insider’s view of the procycling world, running training camps, putting time into his local Lancefield community and just doing epic shit, like riding from Melbourne to Adelaide for the TDU with a few mates and recording interviews along the way.  Mitch's enthusiasm is so infectious, that he strikes me as one of those people, that nobody can say no to, and it's with that innate trust that the Dirty Docker happened.   The inclusiveness of the two-day festival was unlike anything we have ever seen in Australia. Twelve events across XC running races, CX races, novelty races, kids races on the Saturday and the option of 4 gravel events from 15 to 115km on the Sunday attracted a very healthy 580 entrants. Keeping that festival vibe pum...

If I had to sum up the Northern Combine Individual Time Trial Championships and Brunswick Road Club Championships at Balliang on Saturday 31st August in a sentence, this is it. We came, we saw, we were blown away and we went home. Even though, not much happened on the racing front, those of us with a nose for a story, can sniff one out or at least make one up.  So hold onto your hats and here goes. During the week, the weather bureau was telling us that these high winds are unseasonably early.  By mid week I’m googling about safe wind speeds for disc wheels and thinking that I really should prepare that tri-spoke in case it's too windy.  Driving out to Balliang with my passenger Tom McDonough and no tri-spoke, it’s 16 degrees but a howling NW wind is bringing the temperature down to near single digits. Now Tom arrived at my place with nothing more than a musette and his bike.  On the way out he's telling me about his aero bars, which has got me thinking, they must ...

After a near blanket finish at the Combine’s last handicap at Broadford for the Jack Wood Memorial it was time to get back to Balliang, the spiritual home of the Northern Combine.   54 riders from 16 clubs signed on for the 3 events, the Junior Handicap, the combined Alf Walker and the Pop Stewart Handicap, honouring a couple of Brunswick Cycling club legends. Significantly, Brunswick CC riders were best represented with 20 entrants. However, signing up and turning up and two different things and one look at the weather in Melbourne on Saturday morning suggested that it would probably be worse out at Balliang.   But there’s only one way to find out, and that’s to go and see for yourself, which 40 brave men, women and children did in a display of true grit and they were not disappointed. 18min bunch Riders were greeted with wet roads and drizzle at the start.   If not for some dry wood, the open fire place in the hall, would have been the place to be, but fortunately for ...